I'm in New York City and decided to trek to the Nomadic Museum on Saturday.
It was an incredible thing to see. We would never be able to pull off anything like that in Toronto. We have too much funding and bureacratic bullshit to have something of this level. The one thing about New York is that there are so many patrons and funding that goes into the arts. Yes, public space is oversaturated with advertising but the city really pushes using public spaces for artistic means. I mean, when was the last time you saw an installation on the TTC? Or a show installed anywhere but the fucking AGO or some shitty gallery?
This city consistently surprises me. The more I think that everything has been done, the more New York pushes the envelope.
The actual museum is worth walking through crowds of metrosexuals for (it's west of the Meatpacking District). Bypass the meat juice leaking out from the slaughterhouse entranceways and make a right at Alexander McQueen. Then voila, you're near the pier. And the first thing you notice is the Nomadic Museum.
It's such a huge feat. The exterior has such an amazing energy to it. It coincides with the multiples surrounding the museum such as the pattern of the fencing, the piled up bobbles along the shore and the little wooden stumps protruding out from the Hudson. The parchment curtains on the inside also have a pattern that reoccurs throughout the site (the program, the walls, the front entrance). It looks like gene cells but I was saying that it could be elephant skin enlarged (?).
The hotness of the sun above the skyline and the warm wind also made the experience all the more enjoyable.
Entering the museum, one gets a sense that it's another world inside. The entrance is dark and the air is different once you get in. They did a really great job at creating that fantasy element of the exhibit.
All the pieces are hung with wire and lit with a churriasquierra lighting technique used in Neo-classical painting, meaning each photograph had it's own rectangular light source that casted a harsh shadow on the grond below. The pier was surrounded by pebbles and as you make your way into the structure, you are faced with the artist's film playing at the very end. The music haunting, bordering on Enya or a bad "Rainforests of the Night" compilation one puts on to sleep better.
Overall, a very haunting experience but you're constantly being brought back to reality as you are in such proximity to hundreds of tourists talking bullshit about each piece or teenage tour groups snickering. But that's New York for ya.
A must-see.
Oh, and the metrosexuals (or fags) in the Meatpacking District are fucking hilarious. I saw one guy who had THE gayest haircut in the entire world. The guy had this really blowdried extra long bob going on.
He was wearing really hot jeans, Gucci sunglasses, a black blazer and a very low-cut Burberry Prosum jersey tee. And these really great pointy shoes. He was probably 6'5'' (or maybe it was the shoes) and completely tanned. His skin was sooooooooo olive, his eyebrows were sculpted to perfect and he had a very hot body.
I don't think I have EVER seen anyone more gay than him. And because he was so gay, I thought he was pretty fabulous. But I think if I were to stop him to ask him for directions, I would be like a dog and not be able to maintain eye contact with him for too long. I would be too afraid of turning into stone or something.
